June 20, 1891. 



OUR COLUMNS. 



^9 



In one of the back volumes of Punch, there is an amusing- portrait by Du Maurier, 

 of the individual who scribbles in the margins of the books he procures from the 

 circulating library. He is represented with the ears of an ass and the face of an idiot. 

 Let all who are guilty of this silly practice take the hint, and forbear from disfiguring 

 the books that do not to belong them. I am. Sir, yours &;c., 



BOOKWORM. 



Though egotists of the type to which " Bookworm " refers are perhaps not so 

 numerous as formerly, there is, as Mr, Davis can testify, a sufficient number of them 

 still remaining amongst our members to make his letter very apropos. There are, however, 

 greater enemies to books than the idiotic race of marginal scribblers and underliners, — 

 viz., those who, to save themselves the trouble of making extracts, tear out whole 

 pages or paragraphs. Theu, worst of all, we have, occasionally, the picture thief. He 

 was in evidence last year,^s the pages of the Salon catalogue for 1890 bear witness. 



Cf)oru0 of Captitje a@aiDen0» 



EuK. Hecuba 629-656. 



On rae was doomed to fall the hap. 

 On me to fall the blighting woe, 

 When first into the pines on Ida's lap 



The keen axe bit, that so 

 Might Paris on the morrow ride the wave 

 To win his fairest, fairest of all fair. 

 That anywhere 

 The golden sunbeams lave. 



Now, toils and stress of slavery's reverse 

 My life coerce. 

 By one man's deed of shame 

 A common bane, a common stroke. 

 On Ilium came, 

 And ruin at the hand of alien folk. 

 Then was that sharp-contested plea. 



Wherein contended 

 Before a neatherd's court the heavenly Three, — 

 In spear and blood and my home's ending ended. 



Aye, and swift Eurotas near 

 Some maiden mourns, some mother dear, 

 In anguish for her slain, 

 Doth on her silver locks inflict her pain, 

 And down her cheek long furrows score, 

 That ever more 

 Her reddening finger stain. 



H. M. D. 



Ix well managed Libraries like our own, bad books are never taken in, and good 

 umbrellas are never taken out. 



